Scott and Tena's Wedding

This weekend was joyous because on Saturday Mark's brother Scott and my good friend Tena were married.  It was a lovely wedding.  The festivities began with a groom's dinner Friday night.  We helped a little with the food for that and it was a lovely evening.  Then Saturday was the wedding.  It started out with pictures at noon and then my mom was kind enough to come to Caldwell and get Andy so that we could enjoy the rest of the day without a busy, fussy two-year-old.  It really made the rest of the day a treat. 

Here are the bride and groom right after the ceremony.  I've never seen Scott so happy.

Tena and Scott with the bridesmaids. Mom altered my shirt and skirt for me and I was really happy with how they turned out.

Selfie with me and my girls.  Love these kids!

 Me and my sweet Mark.  Such a happy day! 

Andy had a hard time holding still for most of the pictures, so I'm happy Mark got this one of the kids.  When it was time to get the professional pictures done, Mark was holding Andy up and trying to hold him still and the photographer said "say cheese" and Andy yelled "help, help!"  He was not happy being held still. 

Sweet silly girls in their pretty white dresses. 

 Handsome Andy in his very first white shirt and tie, (he had to be held down kicking and screaming to get it on him).  At least he seemed happy enough to wear it after awhile.

 Mark got this pretty shot of Grace playing with the leaves.

 Pretty BethAnne.

And pretty Joy too.

 So it was a great day.  We are very happy to have two of our favorite people so happy together. Marriage is a wonderful thing! Have a great week!  Love, Aubrey

Decorating Pumpkins!

We have been having a lovely day.  I love General Conference weekend.  It seems to get better every time.  The talks have been so inspiring and the music too.  Probably my favorite part of Conference today was the closing hymn this morning- Come, Come, Ye Saints.  Such a beautiful arrangement and such a fitting message for me.  "Come, come ye saints, no toil nor labor fear, but with joy wend your way." 

We go forward with faith, not fear, and we will be blessed.  

In between sessions today, we had a lovely lunch with grilled cheese sandwiches and homemade pumpkin soup made by Mark from one of our garden pumpkins, it was fantastic. 

We struggled with our plants this year, except our pumpkins which grew quite well.  We have 12 so far and a few more on the vine still ripening. 

After lunch, we painted pumpkins.  Andy did a great job, he even said a few color names.  And he became colorful all over.

Not sure why he was eating some of it, but it's non-toxic, Crayola brand.

 He loves painting, we've been doing watercolors most days lately, and lots of baths :)

 Handsome boy!

Pretty Joy

Pretty BethAnne

And pretty Grace.

And the final pumpkins.  In the back is mine, Joy's and Andy's.  Then in the front are Grace and BethAnne's pumpkins. Grace's is a cat among fall trees and BethAnne painted our dogs running through a forest.  I think they're all excellent artists.  

Enjoy the rest of General Conference weekend and have a lovely fall.  

Love, Aubrey

Joy's 6th Birthday!

 Joy turned 6-years-old on Monday.  She had a "Frozen" friend party on Saturday and it was lots of fun.  In the first pictures she's standing in front of the "pin the nose on Olaf" game. 

 Me and the birthday girl.

 

Here is Joy with her little friends. They are all in the same grade. Joy is tall! 

We were going to order a "Frozen" cake from Walmart, but they weren't very cute so we decided to make our own.  We already had an Olaf and we got some other cute things to put on top of the cake and I think it turned out pretty well.  Joy was very happy with it.

 We also had a pinata at the party.  It was really sturdy and didn't want to break.  Eventually we had to start giving me and Mark turns, even then it took awhile to get it to break. Andy wanted all of the turns, he cried when it was everyone else's turns.  It's hard to be 2, and it's hard for the rest of us too :)

  Grace and BethAnne came to the friend party too.  They each got her a stuffed animal from her wish list.  She loved them!  BethAnne also made a great treasure hunt for a party game. 

 Cake time!

Make a wish!

Then Joy got to have a family party on Monday with Grandma, Grandpa,  Nana,  Papa, Aunt Lisa, Uncle Scott and soon-to-be Aunt Tena.  It was very fun!  We even got to play another rousing game of pin the nose on Olaf.  The grown-ups were thrilled!

For Joy's family party she requested chocolate cake with strawberry frosting (which I make with homemade strawberry jam). Yum!

Andy was quite thrilled with Joy's presents.  She got a remote control car from Scott and Tena which he did not relinquish for days.  He yelled "my car!" if anyone tried to take it.  He doesn't say much, but when he does talk, he means it! Sweet Joy was happy to share, for the most part, and that made my life much easier.

 

We are so blessed to have Joy in our family.  She is liking kindergarten and she has been making some new friends.  She really is a lovely, joyful child.  Happy Birthday Joy!